Eight teams duked it out this weekend in London to see who would take the title of champion of CEVO’s Season 9. The teams included three North American teams, one Brazilian teams, and four Europeans.
Group Stages: Group A
Photo Credit: HLTV
The group stages were played in a best-of-three format in two groups. Group A contained Virtus Pro, HellRaisers, Optic Gaming, and Splyce. The first match was played between the favorites to win the tournament, Virtus Pro, and the North American underdogs, Splyce. The North American side surprised the Poles by almost defeating them on their map pick Mirage, and proceeded to tie the series on Cobblestone. Overpass was a different story as Virtus Pro reeled off 11 rounds on the CT side to clean up the series. The next match was between HellRaisers and Optic Gaming which also led to a close series as Optic took the first map and HellRaisers took the second. The third map was a wipe for HellRaisers as they held Optic to only 3 rounds to move on to the winner’s game. Optic played Splyce next in the loser’s game and in the battle between the two domestic rivals, Optic triumphed 2-1. HellRaisers vs Virtus Pro was a wipe for the CIS side as HellRaisers dominated the series to move out first in the group. In the decider match between Optic and Virtus Pro, the Poles showed why they deserved their nickname as the North American killers when they obliterated Optic, holding Optic to less than 9 rounds on both maps despite Optic’s mixwell outperforming even some of the Virtus Pro players.
Outcome- HellRaisers 1st, Virtus Pro 2nd
Group Stages: Group B
Photo Credit: HLTV
Group B contained only one of the North American teams with Selfless, Tempo Storm, SK Gaming, and dignitas. Unfortunately for Selfless, they faced dignitas as their first opponent and were held to only 11 rounds on both maps by the Danish team. Tempo Storm vs SK was not that much of a difference as TS grabbed the victory relatively easily in both games. In the Selfless vs SK elimination match, it looked like the LAN nerves had gotten to the North American team as they completely fell apart and picked up a disappointing total of 4 rounds on both maps. TS managed to out touch dignitas to barely secure their spot as the first place in the group. The decider match for second place in the group would be between the two Danish teams dignitas and SK. Traditionally, dignitas are the better team and won most of their matches against SK, but that day another SK was present as they ripped through their domestic rivals to go out of the group stages in second place.
Outcome- Tempo Storm 1st, SK Gaming 2nd
Playoffs: Semifinals
Photo Credit: HLTV
The semifinals were played in the grueling best-of-five format which resulted in some of the longest series in a tournament. First off, HellRaisers took on SK and it was HellRaisers who were clearly the favored team with how they won against Virtus Pro and also with their new addition to their team, bondik. The first map was a dominant performance from SK on the T-side of Dust II to allow them to steal the first map from HellRaisers which was HellRaisers’ map pick. Overpass was a much closer map where SK barely beat HellRaisers on the thirtieth round of the game. Cobblestone was a blowout for SK who took the map and series in a shocking 3-0 fashion over the favored team. In the other semifinals match, Tempo Storm came out the gate with a strong start and took a 2-0 lead over the Poles before they finally responded. The third map was a wash for VP as they wiped out TS on Inferno 16-3 to take the series into the fourth game. Cache looked like it would be going in favor of the Brazilian team who started with a good 9-6 start on the CT-side, but VP managed to put up an even stronger defense to win the map. Tempo Storm once again started strong on Mirage with a 12-3 half on the CT-side. VP won the second half pistol round and strung together 7 rounds to almost even up the score at 12-10 and force Tempo Storm onto a timeout. The timeout must have worked because Tempo Storm won the next 4 of 5 rounds to take the map 16-11 and move onto the grand finals against SK Gaming.
Outcome- Tempo Storm and SK Gaming win
Grand Finals
Photo Credit: HLTV
Both of the teams in the grand finals had to beat other teams that were more favored than themselves to make it there. Similar to the Virtus Pro game, Tempo Storm started off strong by taking map one and map two to storm to an early lead in the series. The second game saw SK almost pull off a comeback run by sending the match into overtime, but Tempo Storm staved off the attempt with a flawless first half in overtime. The third map Mirage was the home turf for both teams as both have played numerous matches on the map and found success. SK came out to a strong lead, picking up 9 rounds on the unfavored T-side and followed it up with a strong CT-side showing to take the map 16-9. The fourth map of the series was Cobblestone, and unfortunately for the Danes, Tempo Storm’s T-side gave them a huge lead at 12-3 before SK was allowed to try their hand at offense. SK managed to take the pistol round and take a streak of 5 rounds, before they failed to close out an eco-round from the Brazilians that ultimately led to their defeat when Tempo Storm picked up all the remaining rounds.
Outcome- Tempo Storm wins CEVO Season 9